The University of British Columbia

April 18, 2013 | Three Across

Partnering with UBC’s Living Lab: interview with Victor Goncalves, Director of Research and Systems Engineering at Alpha Technologies

How will participating in UBC’s Campus as a Living Lab help to answer key research and development questions for Alpha Technologies?

The smart grid is coming.  Smart grid technology is required to increase the production of energy from renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, biomass and geothermal.   In some North American regions, targets have been set for energy production from renewable energy sources, and smart grid technology is required.   As the Director of Research, I must ask myself and my team:  “How is Alpha going to participate in the new smart grid?”

 

We are answering a few key questions by participating in UBC’s Living Lab.

1. Alpha is really a back-up power company. How do we use new energy storage technologies with our power systems? This will be the first project involving the partnership of Alpha and Corvus Energy, integrating a new Li-Ion battery technology from Corvus with Alpha’s power products.

 

2. Living Lab will also allow us to really explore what smart grid technologies can mean to Alpha in the future. We know power generation will become distributed. We would like to couple green power generation with our back-up power solutions so we can store green energy, provide uninterrupted power and be able to manage it from a remote location.

 

One important aspect of smart grid is the creation of a set of interoperability standards so all companies can put their products on the grid and everything works together as it should.  We have a 100-year old centralized generation system that has worked well for us but as distributed generation is introduced no one company, no one government body can impose a new solution.  We need to create interoperability standards so a number of companies can contribute to the smart grid solution. The Living Lab partnership will help Alpha understand the role it will play in the emerging smart grid.

 

What is the impetus for moving to smart grid technology?

We don’t want to flood any more valleys, we don’t want any more nuclear plants, we don’t want to burn more coal, and there is a strong drive to go to green energy generation.

 

There are two primary factors that prevent the widespread adoption of green energy generation technologies:

1. Green energy generation technologies are intermittent. The wind does not blow all day and night and the sun only shines during the day. Without effective energy storage we cannot deliver this energy when it is actually needed. Storing energy allows us to balance the supply ad demand of energy.

2.  Green energy generation technologies are more costly to generate than traditional ones. Our existing system of centralized power generation, transmission and distribution is too inefficient, so it makes more sense to introduce green energy generation technologies closer to the place of consumption.

 

In the United States, the total efficiency of the electrical system has gone down from 36% twenty years ago to 32% today; this is caused by higher peaks and low valleys in our daily energy consumption. If we put wind and solar energy generation at a centralized location we would need to generate three watts for every watt we consume in our homes.

 

While green energy generation can’t effectively be centralized and put on the utility grid, it can be effectively generated and consumed locally through the use of microgrids. Local consumption significantly increases efficiency, allowing all the energy to be used at the site of consumption and not wasted throughout the utility distribution system. A microgrid with energy storage and an energy management system can be an effective solution to reduce the load on the utility grid during times of peak demand.

 

What technology will Alpha be bringing to UBC?

Three Alpha power nodes will be installed. Each power node will include Corvus Li-Ion batteries and Alpha power supplies. One will be used as part of the biomass power generation system at UBC and another will be installed in the Networks of Centres of Excellence building. A research node will also be installed in the Fred Kaiser building. Alpha Technologies will partner with ECE faculty and students to research how best to communicate with and control these nodes centrally.  

 

What will be the focus of this research?

For Alpha, the Living Lab project is about developing an energy management system that can control a network of Alpha power nodes. The goal is to develop a robust and reliable communications system that can manage when the stored energy in the batteries is used so that the load on the utility grid can be reduced during peak hours. This is known as "peak shaving". 

 

What does Alpha get from partnering with UBC in the Living Lab?

Working with the University allows us to do research and advanced development in the emerging smart grid. Alpha will be demonstrating peak shaving by using a network of Alpha power nodes complete with energy storage and a centralized energy management system.

The Living Lab program will be helping Alpha to better understand new smart grid technologies.

For these relationships to work, there has to be something in it for all of the partners. Alpha is making significant in-kind contributions, but we are also getting value back. UBC is solving some of its operational needs with the product we are donating. UBC students and faculty are getting a new Alpha power node with Li-Ion batteries in the Alpha Technologies Lab for research purposes. I look forward to many new industry/university collaborative research projects.

 

One immediate advantage for me is that I have more research dollars. I have hired four new engineers and a co-op student, and also received funding support through the Mitacs-Accelerate program. My personal motivation is to get undergraduates excited about energy storage, distributed generation and microgrids. Power generation is moving from a centralized to a distributed model. It’s exciting times to be a power engineer.

Read More:

Vancouver campus deploys new $5.1M 'smart grid' energy storage system